Sustainable event industry framework proseed launched by isla

Event sustainability group isla has launched proseed: the event industry’s first universal framework for delivering sustainable events. The framework was launched in front of the industry at a special seminar today, with the support of isla’s 72 strong membership, including Channel 4, Amplify, Brandfuel, Imagination and Church House Westminster.

Labelled as a ‘gamechanger’ for the industry, proseed is a free tool packed full of information, guidance, resources and actions, empowering event teams to deliver sustainable events with a positive impact.

“Sustainability can feel like a complex topic and maybe people find it difficult to know where to start. proseed solves that by being clear, action-focused and practical,” commented Anna Abdelnoor, Co Founder, isla. “Our objective is to clarify while being action focused and practical.

proseed will be delivered across the industry, focusing on being:

• Clear: It explains very clearly why issues like food waste and energy management are important and what you can do to tackle them.
• Action-focused: It provides easy to follow checklists for these areas so you can take action straight away.
• Practical: For organisations that want to take it a step further, for a small cost it provides template sustainability policies and action plans for each area, which can be amended for any event.

Anna Abdelnoor continued “Both our members, and the wider industry, have consistently asked for a way to benchmark sustainability performance, because tracking and comparing progress is crucial to making improvements. proseed provides that as an easy to use resource and is being developed to include a scoring system which will provide transparency and accountability across a full event life cycle.

isla was launched in September 2020, as the event industry response to the climate crisis. It launched with 12 founding members and has since grown to over 75,  with a mix of brands, agencies, venues and event suppliers.

isla’s core principle is that the radical steps needed to save our planet can only be achieved through collaboration. proseed has had input from event energy experts, Zap Concepts, The Sustainable Restaurant Association, circular economy and behavioural change experts Sustainable Sidekicks, WRAP and Ecolibrium, a specialist charity set up to tackle travel impacts within events, as well as being road tested with 30 isla members.

Rick Stainton, Founder and Executive Director of Smyle and founder of One Industry One Voice said:

“At Smyle we have been a leader in advocating sustainable events for many years and collaboration is key to long term success. I’m proud to be a founding member of isla and our team have been heavily involved in the working group for proseed. It sits well alongside Smyle’s approach to measurement and reporting and is a clear example of what the industry needs on its journey towards net zero”

Sean Stanley, from Channel 4, one of isla’s corporate members, said “At Channel 4 we’ve committed to becoming net zero carbon by 2030. proseed is incredibly useful for us because it allows us to translate our climate goals into practical steps that can be implemented by all our event agencies and suppliers, helping us to make the progress we have committed to”.

The framework is hosted at www.proseed.events and all information and guidance is available free to the industry. isla will be working with its member base to implement the framework across their businesses throughout the year, as the benchmarking and scoring functionality is developed.